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President Obama is scheduled to address the nation this evening on why he believes the United States should launch a limited attack on the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria in response to its use of chemical weapons.

Three years into a civil war in which tens of thousands of Syrians have died, there is no reason to believe that the Assad regime would engage in diplomacy regarding its chemical weapons stockpile and its usage.

Yet an almost off-handed remark by Secretary of State John Kerry has produced at least the prospect of a diplomatic solution.

In London, Mr. Kerry said that Mr. Assad could avoid an American attack by turning over "every single bit" of his chemical weapons inventory to an internationally recognized entity.

The comment was meant to illustrate the hopelessness of any solution other than force.

Then, however, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said he would take up the idea with the Syrians. Syria's foreign minister then said the regime might turn over its chemical weapons to the Russians, characterizing the idea as being Russian, rather than American.

Even if Syria were to turn over its cache, more civilians would die by other means. But the Obama administration has said that its intervention would be limited to the chemical weapons issue, so a deal would preclude any widening of the conflict based on American action.

Russia is a signatory of the international chemical weapons ban treaty and, even if it were to decide to violate that treaty, it easily could make its own weapons. There is little risk in its verified receipt of the Syrian material.

The White House said late Monday that it is skeptical of the proposal, as modified by the Russians, but Mr. Obama should not reject it out of hand. It is, after all, only the threat of U.S. force that prompted the Syrian regime to entertain a diplomatic answer regarding Syrian weapons. If getting those weapons out of play is the objective, then diplomacy is the ideal means to do it.

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